And you? How many times?

The Irún-Bilbao stage is like a nice hike trail. It mainly leads in the mountains, often crosses farms and your feet only touch concrete when you are in the villages.

 
From one farm to another

Because of the length of the stages and the location of the accommodations the pilgrims stay together, we always met the same faces during the day and in the evenings. The Canadian Pierre, the German Hans and the athletic woman, a Belgian couple, the two Italians and the 5 cheerful Spanish were almost our only companion. Seeing their performance you wouldn’t tell that all of them are over 60, as they went at a very good pace. Most of them completed at least one Camino but for some of them it is the forth one. We heard of the “Camino addicts” but didn’t expect to meet them this soon! ;))

 
On the sides the two Italians. On the French pilgrim, to the right of Monika, you can see the typical pilgrim tan: the limbs are tanned, but the corpse and the feet are snow white. :))

Pierre is a real character: amazingly tanned, his grey curly hair is whitened by the sun, mischievous smiling eyes. He was the first one we met; on our day zero, waiting for the opening the pilgrim refugee in Irún. First we didn’t understand his question about from where we are coming – we start here, where the Camino starts, don’t we? :) Then we learnt that he started in France, was on his way for a month and was close to finish his thousandth kilometer already… Every day he left at least half an hour earlier than us and by the time we arrived to the refugee he already had a shower, washed his cloths and finished his first beers. ;))

With Pierre 


Drinking beer with Pierre, in the background a French and a Swiss pilgrim

Just before Bilbao we said goodbye for the Spanish who came only for a week and was to fly back to Barcelona and start working the next day (on Monday). As we crossed the industrial ring on our way the center, we were almost sure that we’d never see our pilgrim friends again - a new stage begins. Luckily we wasn’t right completely.

With the Spanish group